Exposition on bastards in general, and

HalfPastOne in particular.

December 24, 2009.

In the hieroglyphic translations referenced in Patrick Geryl's books, a type of boat built by the Atlanteans, and heavily lauded and worshiped as a 'savior' by their pharaohic egyptian descendents, was used in fleets to survive the last 2/two cataclysmic pole shifts. These boats were known as 'mandjits', and in the context of their time of construction, these boats were both self righting, and unsinkable. The technology that made them so can be investigated in archeological references of ancient Egyptian boat monuments.

And the case can certainly be made that the place to be during a ocean sloshing cataclysmic pole shift is out at sea. The idea being that as the water moves, you stay on top of it. This strategy has been referenced in everything from the Mithra texts of ancient Persia, the Manu story of the pre-Vedic snskrtta works, both written and oral, and even the Mayan (meso American) civilizations referenced 'those who came by water'...to provide the basis of civilization. Other ancient myths hint toward an actual history of a globe spanning sea based advanced civilization prior to the pharaoh dynasties, and from which the whole of the Nile based civilizations seeming sprang, fully formed, as the legacy of a vast boat based culture. Arguments for appropriate transliteration of the inscriptions under several monuments to the mandjit boats point to the very survival of the civilization having sailed in these vessels.

There are any number of ancient myths, legends, texts, glyphs, and other histories which describe the survival of a giant flood in boats of some design. In many cases the boats are described in terms as 'divine', and 'blessed'. Much of this language is the same sort that you will hear from any sailor who has survived heavy weather in small boats of any kind. All boats that take you through, and bring you home are 'blessed' in a very real way.

So, having read Patrick Geryls' books on the upcoming cataclysmic pole shift, and notwithstanding Bill Deagles' claim to have calculations (as yet unseen by anyone else) that prove such a cataclysm will not happen again, and seeing all the signs in the sun and on the earth, my approach has been to build myself a self-righting, and unsinkable boat. Not having either lots of money or time, and having evaluated all the other options as well as weighting the investment return (e.g.best quality of boat for the money/time), my choice was a 'sharpie'. Having a loong history in boat building, and with boats in general, my choice makes sense in both low dollars required, and large, safe boats. Further, by choosing a flat bottomed, sharpie design, the boat will be able to beached, so no other dinghy or tender is required, thus an extra savings in what you have to pack around. Further, the sharpie is a working boat design that is native to early colonial America and has several hundred years history of being able to withstand extremes of weather that other boats (excepting junks) would not. The only drawback to the sharpie is that it must be actively sailed due to its performance characteristics. So unlike the 'white' boats of today, which are big ribbed (round sided in section), and much like pushing a basement through the water as much of the habitat part of the boat is below the water line, the sharpie requires an active hand on the tiller.

In a perfect world, my choice of a sharpie design for either surviving the end of the civilization pole shift, or retirement sailing in the watery parts of the planet would be a Phil Bolger designed AS 29 (Advanced Sharpie 29 foot). Many of the AS 29s that have been built are world travelers. Other examples and images can be found by searching on AS 29, and Phil Bolger boats. The AS 29 has many advantages from construction through to handling in rough seas. Further information about the amazing hydrodynamics of the Bolger 'boxes', as they are called, reveal that the shape alone (what is known as 'excessive freeboard') contributes to their self righting capability.

While almost any small boat can be made unsinkable by the addition of sufficient quantities of closed cell foam, very few are actually designed to be self righting in extreme conditions. It would seem that a pole shift kind of oceans sloshing out of their basins would qualify as producing extreme conditions so a self righting boat definitely makes sense.The ability to weather a knock down seems a very real need in the event of pole shift cataclysmic conditions. Therefore it makes sense to design, and construct the boat with the idea of withstanding a knockdown as just 'another day out sailing'. Thus the Bolger freeboard hydrodynamics are recommended.

Further, there is the basic idea that a boat, is first and foremost, a habitat for humans and their critters, and as such needs to also provide as much comfort and safety as is possible. In both cases, it can be argued that the ability to have full standing head room is a huge plus. This is also provided by the 'excessive freeboard' of the Bolger designs.

As noted above, in a perfect world, I would build an AS 29, but this world is far from perfect, so I had to compromise. The AS 29 is easily sailed by one person, but is not easily built by one person, especially if there is a sense of urgency to the completion of construction. So I compromised and obtained an old sharpie of a Tom Colvin design called 'Pandora'. The boat is 26 foot length overall, with 23 feet on the former water line. It was a centerboard, marine plywood constructed hull. It had rot throughout the deck, and cabin structure, as well as a small section of the port side forward hull. It was $700 dollars and I had to haul it off a mountain on Lummi Island, and back down to Olympia, but it suited my purposes, so I acquired the vessel.

Upon arriving in Olympia, I wrestled it off the trailer, and then removed the deck, cabin, and all structures inside the hull including the center board, and center board well. Most of this was not salvageable, and was discarded. The masts were saved along with the old canvas sails, through the sails will now be altered into small 'storm try sails' for later use.

The masts have been split apart as they were constructed birds mouth fashion though of a solid, not hollow form. These have been hollowed out, and certain grounding wires, and other electric cabling placed inside prior to the mast being re glued using 2/two part marine epoxy. The masts will be sanded (a bunch) and then coated with resin, and wrapped with 3 ounce ballistic grade polyester cloth and more resin. These masts are unstayed, but will be fastened into tabernacles for easy of raising single handed. There are 2/two masts of approximately the same height. Both masts will carry braided copper grounding wire back to grounding bands within the lee boards.

I have chosen to replace the center board structure with lee boards both to free up the interior space in the boat, as well as to gain the efficiency of the lee boards. Most sailors and boat builders do not recognize that centerboard or keels are actually compromises in efficiency of moment (in the hydrodynamic sense of the word), and the most effective method of sailing is with lee boards. This is due to the wing shape being able to be employed as needed in lee boards, and where needed, as well as the larger effective surface available from lee boards with lower actual size of immersed wing. Further, I will shape the lee board supports themselves to support the self righting component of the boat.

After removing the deck and other rotten parts of the boat, i was left with a hull which I stripped down to the wood, and then applied marine epoxy resin and biaxial fiberglass to all joints of the hull. Further cloth and resin was applied over all the ribs. Then the whole of the interior was covered in polyester cloth and resin. Then the hull was laboriously flipped over and extensively resin/cloth covered on the outside after some improvements were made in the small skeg/keelson. Then once again the hull was flipped right side up, heavier this time, and construction was begun in ernest.

The sheer line was raised a foot. Then an inset straight sided cabin was constructed which provides a Bolger style freeboard sufficient to give full standing headroom nearly the whole length of the small boat. That was the first stage in the metamorphosis to survival pod and/or pocket cruiser.

The floor of the boat has been filled with 2/two part foam to a depth of 2/two inches, and the walls of the hull, and the cabin side will also be filled to a thickness of slightly over 1/one inch. Not only will this provide enough floatation to keep the boat afloat even if completely filled with water, it will also give excellent insulation against the cold and damp of Pacific coast winters. The small deck in the back that will support the fully enclosed steering stations is also filled with floatation foam. The idea being that if the boat is broken up by some collision, that all the pieces would also float, and thus some additional provision for survival may exist. A further benefit is gained from the closed cell foam providing a tight bond and structural reinforcement.

There will be no through hull fittings on this boat as they weaken the integrity of the hull. All wiring will be carried in accessible channels running in the corners of the construction. As the top of the cabin is also the deck across the whole of the boat, it will resemble the Badger dory including the Junk (fully battened lug sail) rig.

While considerably smaller, than the Badger, the general shape will be the same from the waterline up, although my boat will have a permanent, completely enclosed steering station aft that will look like the back end of one of these fully enclosed life boats. Thus it will be seen that the bastard nature of my boat will be quite visible as construction continues. Noting the multiple ironies involved at all the various levels, the boat will be named 'Half Past One' when complete. I expect to be doing sea trials this coming Spring. After all the innumerable fiddly bits are done, including sewing the sails (7/seven panel junk style), and outfitting. The boat will have an interior head, with holding tank (bucket), and interior sealable water tight bulkheads. For heat and cooking I have a camp tent style airtight wood stove. The smallest one that could be obtained as the interior space is likely going to be very warm constantly just with humans and dogs breathing and moving around. Yet the size, and the insulation provided by the closed cell foam in the hull and cabin sides, as well as the foil backed insulation in the cabin ceiling ought to provide the ability to stay toasty warm even in arctic cold waters.

I have a powerful electric outboard motor (equivalent to a 10 horse gas outboard) and 450 amp hour batteries (closed, gel style), as well as a windmill for charging (and solar). But there is some thought to NOT have these aboard during a pole shift due to the potential for extreme electrical discharge from the EMP and other output from the sun. The thinking at the moment is to take our 26 foot umiak as a metal tools, and batteries, and electrical device carrier. We would place all these into the umiak, and then cover them with 2/two part closed cell foam. The boat would then have a water tight cover sewn in place, and it would be towed along behind HalfPastOne. The idea then would be to use several hundred feet (perhaps 300 or so) of stiff rope between the umiak and the HalfPastOne during the heavy weather. Thus the umiak could be used as a drogue to mitigate the impact of some of the aspects of the heavy weather on HalfPastOne.

Of course, still a long way to go to get the boat into the water. And below are a few pictures from the work in progress.

As can be seen, the HalfPastOne is only just at the 'rough cut' stage. Mass amounts of sanding remains, then much resin and cloth until the whole of the boat is a hard shell of resin and polyester and ballistic nylon encasing a wooden habitat. I have mahogany, and birch for the interior, and the exterior will be painted....likely some bizarre color scheme due to what paint is on sale at the time.

The boat will have large lee boards similar to what is seen on Dutch vessels of about 30 feet. The rudder is a kick-up style traditionally seen on sharpies...and useful in the case of lots of debris in the waters....or when beaching on unknown shores.

An interesting and rather ironic note is that very very few of the archeologists of the world have ever been small boat people, and as such are blind to the potential for small boats and their humans to have affected the totality of civilization in very fundamental ways. Such as the Clovis people...really, you think that Mrs. Clovis was willing to walk 8000 miles across a Siberian landbridge, when she could have had Mr. Clovis build a boat and then sailed across only about 1800 miles....and taken the chickens, and all her stuff? Sure.....right, and women have changed in only these few millennia.

Oh, all the lights, and the non-human powered tools involved are run off my solar panels and battery array.

Source material as well as survival strategies can be found at:

Patrick Geryl's books, including "The Orion Prophecy ", and "How to survive 2012",